Jah’s name continued. Little progress on the adoption front. Then an interesting proposition.

To update readers on Jah’s choice of name, following the criticism we received for continuing to use this special name.

He was keen to add a second name and liked the sound of Joshua.  He gradually adopted that name.  However, for the purpose of this blog, I shall continue to refer to him as Jah.

Of course there was no question of him being able to use our family surname.  That could only happen once a formal adoption order had been granted. He was old enough to understand that.

Adoption procedures

We appeared to have come up against a big administrative block, caused by the disappearance of Jah’s birth mother.  However, the local authority Social Services Department did what they could.  They appointed a solicitor and she came to visit us.  She explained to us again that – although reluctant to do this – they would eventually go ahead and grant the order without the birth mother’s signature if they could not find her.  She seemed to be very impressed by the barrister the authority planned to use.

The case was going to be heard in the High Court of the land – The Royal Courts of Justice, because he was a ward of the court.

So far so good. . .  Then the solicitor went on extended maternity leave.  This was good news for the solicitor, but It didn’t feel like such good news for Jah, as no replacement solicitor came to take on the case. Months passed. Nothing happened or was said about a date for the anticipated adoption order.

We were left with a small boy who wanted to be “properly ‘dopted” before he started school in September. This began to look increasingly unlikely. However, our job was to help him to settle and not to dwell on problems.

Then we received an interesting letter from my brother and sister-in-law.  They asked: Would we be able to have our nephew to stay for a period of about three months?

Robert, our nephew, was ten years old.  He was academically far ahead of his schoolmates in Sweden and getting a bit bored at school.  His parents thought that it would be good for him to come over to England, to attend a local school and spend time with our family.  This would mean that our household would consist of three young boys and two teenage daughters.  It would also mean that there would be special times to plan and enjoy.  Naturally we would want to show Robert some of our best tourist attractions in London and in the countryside around Leicester.

We had rarely visited London as a family and there were many places we wanted the children to see.  We would all benefit in many ways.

We hoped that Robert’s  visit would take Jah’s mind off the slow progress on the adoption front and all looked forward to his arrival.